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a fortified, usually walled residence, as of a prince or noble in feudal times.
the chief and strongest part of the fortifications of a medieval city.
a strongly fortified, permanently garrisoned stronghold.
a large and stately residence, especially one, with high walls and towers, that imitates the form of a medieval castle.
any place providing security and privacy:
It may be small, but my home is my castle.
Chess. the rook.
to place or enclose in or as in a castle.
Chess. to move (the king) in castling.
to move the king two squares horizontally and bring the appropriate rook to the square the king has passed over.
(of the king) to be moved in this manner.
Historical Examples

While all is hushed, watch the castled crag and the gnarled pine on the hilltop blacken against the golden afterglow.
Your National Parks Enos A. Mills

The night gathers over the castled crags and the mysterious forests.
Southern Spain A.F. Calvert

castled upon the hill above, it simulated power in more ways than one.
In a Mysterious Way Anne Warner

The German waiter at the inn asked with great gravity if we admired it more than ‘the castled crag of Drachenfels.’
Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 Augustus J. C. Hare

I think of you, on the high style of your castled steep, with tender compassion.
The Letters of Henry James (volume I) Henry James

Ravines profound as night lie near the castled hills, in which all manner of noxious things swarm and multiply.
Legends & Romances of Spain Lewis Spence

The castled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine.
Familiar Quotations Various

Not upon the Rhine, with its castled rocks—not upon the shores of that ancient inland sea—not among the Isles of the Ind.
The Quadroon Mayne Reid

Reflected in that stream is the castled crag of Drachenfels, mirrored as in my heart the image of my dearest Catherine.
The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. I.(of II) Charles James Lever

Even on one’s way to Italy one may spare a throb of desire for the beautiful vision of the castled Grisons.
Italian Hours Henry James

adjective
like a castle in construction; castellated: a castled mansion
(of an area) having many castles
noun
a fortified building or set of buildings, usually permanently garrisoned, as in medieval Europe
any fortified place or structure
a large magnificent house, esp when the present or former home of a nobleman or prince
the citadel and strongest part of the fortifications of a medieval town
(chess) another name for rook2
verb
(chess) to move (the king) two squares laterally on the first rank and place the nearest rook on the square passed over by the king, either towards the king’s side (castling short) or the queen’s side (castling long)
n.

late Old English castel “village” (this sense from a biblical usage in Vulgar Latin); later “large fortified building, stronghold,” in this sense from Old North French castel (Old French chastel, 12c.; Modern French château), from Latin castellum “a castle, fort, citadel, stronghold; fortified village,” diminutive of castrum “fort,” from Proto-Italic *kastro- “part, share;” cognate with Old Irish cather, Welsh caer “town” (and perhaps related to castrare via notion of “cut off;” see caste). In early bibles, castle was used to translate Greek kome “village.”

This word also had come to Old English as ceaster and formed the -caster and -chester in place names. Spanish alcazar “castle” is from Arabic al-qasr, from Latin castrum. Castles in Spain translates 14c. French chastel en Espaigne (the imaginary castles sometimes stood in Brie, Asia, or Albania) and probably reflects the hopes of landless knights to establish themselves abroad. The statement that an (English) man’s home is his castle is from 16c.
v.

move in chess, recorded under this name from 1650s, from castle (n.), as an old alternative name for the rook, one of the pieces moved. Related: Castled; castling.

a military fortress (1 Chr. 11:7), also probably a kind of tower used by the priests for making known anything discovered at a distance (1 Chr. 6:54). Castles are also mentioned (Gen. 25:16) as a kind of watch-tower, from which shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night. The “castle” into which the chief captain commanded Paul to be brought was the quarters of the Roman soldiers in the fortress of Antonia (so called by Herod after his patron Mark Antony), which was close to the north-west corner of the temple (Acts 21:34), which it commanded.